John Lind (politician)

Infobox Governor
name=John Lind


caption=John Lind
order= 14^th
office= Governor of Minnesota
term_start= January 2, 1899
term_end= January 7, 1901
lieutenant= Lyndon Ambrose Smith
predecessor= David Marston Clough
successor= Samuel Rinnah Van Sant
birth_date= birth date|1854|3|25|mf=y
birth_place= Småland Sweden
death_date= death date and age|1930|9|18|1854|3|25|mf=y
death_place= Minneapolis, Minnesota
party= Democrat
profession= educator
spouse= Alice A. Shepard
religion=
footnotes=

John Lind (March 25, 1854ndash September 18, 1930) was an American politician. He was born in Kånna, in Småland in Sweden and emigrated to the United States with his parents when he was thirteen years old. He served in the Spanish-American War in 1898. A former teacher and superintendent, he later graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School.

He served as a Republican in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1887 to March 3, 1893 in the 50th, 51st, and 52nd congresses. He had a falling out with the Republicans after serving in the U.S. House. Lind ran for governor as a Democrat and served as the 14th Governor of Minnesota from January 2, 1899, to January 7, 1901. He had also been endorsed by the Populists and Silver Republicans.

Lind also served in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1903, to March 3, 1905, as a Democrat. When he was elected Governor of Minnesota, he was the first non-Republican to hold that office in forty years. He died in 1930 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Following the assassination of Mexican President Francisco I. Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez on February 22, 1913, it became clear that U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson was complicit in the plot. As soon as the new U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan assumed office on March 15, 1913, they sent John Lind to Mexico as Wilson's personal envoy for Mexican affairs.

Lind was known for having a temper. According to an article on the front page of the Moose Lake (MN) Star on January 17, 1901: "Ex-governor John Lind after having freed himself from the duties of governor last Thursday walked down to the Dispatch office in St. Paul and administered to Editor Black a well-deserved licking. For a one armed man John Lind can make some telling blows once in a while."

External links

*CongBio|L000319|name=LIND, John|inline=1
* [http://www.mnhs.org/people/governors/gov/gov_16.htm Minnesota Historical Society Biography]
* [http://nrhp.mnhs.org/property_overview.cfm?propertyID=40/ The John Lind House, New Ulm, Minnesota]